STEVENS POINT – The pilot who died Sunday when his plane spiraled to the ground during the Stevens Point Air Show had more than two decades of experience with military jets and commercial airliners, he told a reporter shortly before the crash.

Bill Cowden, 47, of Menomonie died Sunday when the plane he was flying crashed in the trees near the Green Circle Trail during an aerobatics show at the Stevens Point airport, police said.

RELATED: Pilot killed in plane crash

Cowden flew F-16s in the the U.S. Air Force and later became a commercial pilot for Delta Air Lines. Cowden, who had been a pilot for 25 years, told a Stevens Point Journal Media reporter at Sunday’s air show that he flew aerobatic planes because it rekindled the thrill he got from flying F-16s — one of the world’s fastest jets.

The crash happened near the Green Circle Trail in a wooded area about 1,000 feet east of the runway at the Stevens Point Municipal Airport, Stevens Point Police Sgt. Tony Babl said, confirming what witnesses on the scene said.

Airport officials shut down the airshow immediately after the crash. Numerous emergency vehicles — including those from the Stevens Point and Stockton fire departments, the Stevens Point Police Department and the Portage County Sheriff's Office — traveled to and from the scene of the crash, which occurred at the far end of the airfield, opposite from the terminal.

Witnesses to the crash said the plane had spiraled toward the ground, looped up, then crashed into the trees next to the airport's airfield.

Federal Aviation Administration officials are on the scene investigating the crash. Portage County Coroner Scott Rifleman will be transporting Cowden to Madison to perform an autopsy.